Romans used lime to disinfect and deodorize human waste. The use has continued throughout the development of civilization. However, prior to this invention, the use of lime for wastewater sludge treatment has been severely limited by governmental regulations including the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
The EPA has promulgated rules governing the type of processes that can be used to treate wastewater sludge.
Under 40 CFR 257, a Process to Further Reduce Pathogens (PFRP) (See p. 5, 6) must be used where sewage sludge or septic tank pumpings are to be applied to a land surface or are incorporated into the soil, and crops for direct human consumption are to be grown on such land within eighteen (18) months subsequent to application or incorporation.
A Process to Significantly Reduce Pathogens (PSRP) (See p. 5) must be used where sewage sludge or septic tank pumpings are to be applied to a land surface or incorporated into the soil and the public will have access to such land within twelve (12) months subsequent to application or incorporation, or grazing animals, whose products are consumed by humans, will have access to such land within one (1) month subsequent to application or incorporation.
Appendix II of 40 CFR 257 classifies the following as PSRP and PFRP processes:
A. Processes to Significantly Reduce Pathogens
Aerobic digestion: The process is conducted by agitating sludge with air or oxygen to maintain aerobic conditions at residence times ranging from 60 days at 15.degree. C. to 40 days at 20.degree. C., with a volatile solids reduction of at least 38 percent. PA1 Air Drying: Liquid sludge is allowed to drain and/or dry on under-drained sand beds, or paved or unpaved basins in which the sludge is at a depth of nine inches. A minimum of three months is needed, two months of which temperatures average on a daily basis above 0.degree. C. PA1 Anaerobic digestion: The process is conducted in the absence of air at residence times ranging from 60 days at 20.degree. C. to 15 days at 35.degree. to 55.degree. C., with a volatile solids reduction of at least 38 percent. PA1 Composting: Using the within-vessel, static aerated pile or windrow composting methods, the solid waste is maintained at minimum operating conditions of 40.degree. C. for 5 days. For four hours during this period the temperature exceeds 55.degree. C. PA1 Lime Stabilization: Sufficient lime is added to produce a pH of 12 after 2 hours of contact. PA1 Other methods: Other methods or operating conditions may be acceptable if pathogens and vector attraction of the waste (volatile solids) are reduced to an extent equivalent to the reduction achieved by any of the above methods. PA1 Composting: Using the within-vessel composting method, the solid waste is maintained at operating conditions of 55.degree. C. or greater for three days. Using the static aerated pile composting method, the solid waste is maintained at operating conditions of 55.degree. C. or greater for three days. Using the windrow composting method, the solid waste attains a temperature of 55.degree. C. or greater for at least 15 days during the composting period. Also, during the high temperature period, there will be a minimum of five turnings of the windrow. PA1 Heat drying: Dewatered sludge cake is dried by direct or indirect contact with hot gases, and moisture content is reduced to 10 percent or lower. Sludge particles reach temperatures well in excess of 80.degree. C., or the wet bulb temperature of the gas stream in contact with the sludge at the point where it leaves the dryer is in excess of 80.degree. C. PA1 Heat treatment: Liquid sludge is heated to temperatures of 180.degree. C. for 30 minutes. PA1 Thermophilic Aerobic Digestion: Liquid sludge is agitated with air or oxygen to maintain aerobic conditions at residence times of 10 days at 55.degree.-60.degree. C., with a volatile solids reduction of at least 38 percent. PA1 Other methods: Other methods of operating conditions may be acceptable if pathogens and vector attraction of the waste (volatile solids) are reduced to an extent equivalent to the reduction achieved by any of the above methods. PA1 Beta ray irradiation: Sludge is irradiated with beta rays from an accelerator at dosages of at least 1.0 megarad at room temperature (ca. 20.degree. C.). PA1 Gamma ray irradiations: Sludge is irradiated with gamma rays from certain isotopes, such as .sup.60 Cobalt and .sup.137 Cesium, at dosages of at least 1.0 megarad at room temperature (ca. 20.degree. C.). PA1 Pasteurization: Sludge is maintained for at least 30 minutes at a minimum temperatures of 70.degree. C. PA1 Other methods: Other methods of operating conditions may be acceptable if pathogens are reduced to an extent equivalent to the reduction achieved by any of the above add-on methods. PA1 "Lime stabilization is a very simple process. Its principal advantages over other stabilization processes are low cost and simplicity of operation . . . lime addition does not make sludge chemically stable; if pH drops below 11.0, biological decomposition will resume producing noxious odors. Second, the quantity of sludge for disposal is not reduced, as it is by biological stabilization methods. On the contrary, the mass of dry sludge is increased by the lime added and by the chemical precipitates that derive from the addition. Thus because of the increased volume, the costs of transport and ultimate disposal are often greater for lime stabilized sludges than for sludge stabilized by other methods . . . quantitative observation under a microscope has shown substantial survival of higher organisms, such as hook worms, amoebic systs and Ascaris ova after contact time of 24 hours at high pH." PA1 Reimers, Englande et al (EPA 600/2-81-166) reported that: PA1 "Application of lime to primary aerobic digested and anaerobic digested sludge was found to be effective with greater than 80% reduction of Ascaris viability in 5 days following aerobic digestion at a lime dosage of about 1000 mg/gram of sludge solids (one part lime to one part sludge solids) . . . In the case of the 35.degree. C. aerobically-digested sludge, there was no apparent effect of lime on the viability of Ascaris eggs at dosages up to 3000 mg of lime per gram of dry sludge solids under anaerobic conditions, in the period of 20 days. However, under aerobic conditions, a 98% reduction of viable Ascaris eggs were observed within one hour at dosages greater than 1000 mg of lime per gram of dry sludge solids, but only 77% reduction of the viable eggs was observed at a dosage of 100 mg lime per gram of dry sludge solids after 20 days. The explanation of these differentials is not apparent." PA1 "To summarize the effects of lime on sludge pathogens viruses are destroyed by high pH values, although it has not been shown that viruses within sludge itself are inactivated; parasite ova are resistant to high pH, and most will probably survive lime treatment; bacteria are rapidly inactivated at pH 12 but, because of pH decreases at levels suitable for bacteria growth, their numbers increase with time." PA1 "If crops for direct human consumption are grown within 18 months of sludge application, sludge must be treated with a PFRP. These processes destroy pathogenic bacteria, viruses and protozoa as well as parasites in most cases by exposing the sludge to elevated temperatures over a period of time."
B. Process to Further Reduce Pathogens
Any of the processes listed below, if added to the processes described in Section A above, further reduce pathogens. Because the processes listed below, on their own, do not reduce the attraction of disease vectors, they are only add-on in nature.
Prior to this invention, many concerns have been raised about the long term disinfection and stabilization capability of the treatment. Farrel et al, in "Lime Stabilization of Primary Sludges", Journal of Water Pollution Control Fed 46, 113 January 1974 published by USEPA, states: "Lime stabilization does not make the sludges chemically stable. The pH eventually falls and surviving bacteria may return if conditions are favorable . . . higher organisms such as Ascaris survive short term exposure to pH of 11.5 and possibly long term exposure."
In January 1979, the EPA published a Wastewater Sludge Manual (EPA 625/1-79-001) titled "Process Design Manual for Sludge Treatment and Disposal" which states:
In July 1984, the Sandia National Laboratories published a report titled "Pathogens in Sludge Occurrence, Inactivation and Potential for Regrowth" which states:
In October 1984, the EPA published a report (EPA 625/10-84-003) titled "Use and Disposal of Municipal Wastewater Sludge" which was the basis for future regulations. Section 3 of the report states:
On Nov. 6, 1985 the EPA issued a memorandum regarding applicaton of 40 CFR 257 regulations to pathogen reduction preceding land application of sewage sludge or septic tank pumpings. One of the purposes of issuing the memorandum was to outline procedures to enable enforcement agents to determine whether sprocesses other than those listed in the regulation (40 CFR 257) qualify as a PFRP process. To qualify a process as a PSRP, one must demonstrate that the process reduces animal viruses by one log and pathogenic bacterial densities by at least two logs and must reduce the vector attractiveness such that vectors, like flies or rats, are not attracted to the sludge. To qualify a new process as PFRP, one must demonstrate reduction of pathogenic bacteria, animal viruses, and parasites "below detectable limits" of one (1) plaque forming unit (PFU) per 100 ml of sludge for animal viruses; three (3) colony forming units (CFU) per 100 ml of sludge for pathogenic bacteria (Salmonella sp.); and one (1) viable egg per 100 ml of sludge for parasites (Ascaris sp.). Vector attractiveness must also be reduced for PFRP.
If only PSRP disinfective is utilized, land application for fertilization purposes is controlled by EPA restrictions (it cannot be used on root crop: "40 CFR 257"). If the process achieved PFRP criteria these restrictions are eliminated ("40 CFR 257").
In my U.S. Pat. No. 4,554,002, it was shown that kiln dust could be used to reduce pathogens and dry wastewater sludge prior to land application.
Roediger, U.S. Pat. No. 4,270,279, describes a method of drying and sterilizing sewage sludge wherein sheet-like sewage sludge is broken up into ball-like sludge particles and dusting the outer surface only with quicklime. This technology utilizes exothermic heat generated from the reaction of adding H.sub.2 O to quick lime to sterilize the sludge. This heat sterilization is typical to the traditional aforementioned PFRP processes. To this date, the EPA has not approved a petition for approval of this technology as a PSRP process. Moreover, there are problems with this method. If this method actually sterilizes the sludge, it would kill all life forms contained in the sludge, whether they were pathogenic or beneficial non-pathogenic microorganisms. In contrast, the present invention decontaminates sludge, killing pathogens to a level below PFRP standards but does niot eliminate all non-pathogenic microorganisms from the sludge.
None of the above references suggest that lime or kiln dust, in combination with a natural drying process, could be used to produce the pathogenic reduction in wastewater sludge equivalent to PFRP processes, and thus provide an inexpensive method of treating wastewater sludge such that it can be applied directly to land as a fertilizer to grow crops for direct human consumption.